Business & Education

1:02 pm

Sat January 18, 2014

Textbooks OK'd After Complaints Prompted Review

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's school board has recommended 11 social studies textbooks, effectively dismissing complaints from critics who said the texts favored Islam over other religions. Department of Education spokeswoman Erica Pippins said the board voted to recommend the books with a 5-2 vote on Friday. The vote is only a recommendation. Local school districts still get to decide which texts their students will read. Two groups, Act for America and the Eagle Forum of Alabama, had earlier complained the books spent too much time explaining Islam and not enough on Christianity and Judaism. The head of Act for America's Birmingham chapter, Larry Houck, said the books proselytized for Islam. The president of Birmingham Islamic Society, Ashfaq Taufique, said the objections were unfounded. He called the vote by state officials "encouraging."